Box Office Results: ‘Angry Birds’ Flies To First

Three new releases debuted this weekend to varying levels of success, with one release in particular rising to the top.

That film is Angry Birds, the animated family flick based off the hit video game (if you consider a phone game a video game). The film debuted to a solid 39 million dollar start this weekend. Compared to other animated releases, it placed right between Over the Hedge (38.4 million) and Good Dinosaur (39.1 million).

While it did not open to the highs that other animated films do, distributor Sony has to be happy with this film’s performance. The tie-in with the game proved to help substantially, as well as the effective marketing effort and well-timed release date. Angry Birds also opened strong overseas (55 million), an even bigger plus for Sony.

Angry Birds cost 73 million dollars to make, a figure that will be easily reached. A final tally around 130 million is very much in play.

Finally falling off the top spot is Captain America: Civil War, which earned 33.1 million in second place. A 52% drop off from last weekend is not bad, but also not that impressive compared to past Marvel films. Civil War has performed obviously very impressively, but some have questioned how it has not met the standard of past Marvel films. Is this just a chance coincidence or a sign of something more? It’s really too early to tell.

Even when considering the doubts, Civil War has earned a massive 347.3 million on a 250 million dollar budget, so don’t expected Marvel executives to be all that worried.

Opening in third place is Neighbors 2: Sorority Row, which opened with mixed results this weekend, earning 21.7 million. Even with the expectation of the film not performing as well as the original (49 million), to not even come within half of that gross is slightly disappointing.

Still, it’s hard to be too down on the film, as it did open pretty decently all things considered. Distributor Universal did a nice job marketing the film and the star power was the same as the original, the film under-performing slightly should just be chalked up to the concept not being as fresh as it was with the original.

Neighbors 2 cost only 35 million dollars to make, meaning the film will turn a good profit even if it does not hold up all that well. However, a Neighbors 3 may not be in the future.

Also opening this week is The Nice Guys, which opened fairly modestly. The clever crime flick placed in fourth, earning 11.2 million dollars. Despite a great deal of star power (Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe) and great reviews (hovering around 90% on Rotten Tomatoes), the film appeared to be a little too obtuse to connect with major audiences. Still, with the great reviews, the film will likely hold up well.

The Nice Guys cost 50 million dollars to make, a mark it will likely struggle to break even with.

Both of last weekend’s holdovers performed fairly well considering the new competition. Money Monster earned placed in sixth place, earning a solid 7 million dollars. A 52% drop off from last weekend is a solid hold, showing that the film has connected well with adult audiences. The film broke even this week with its 27 million dollar budget, so its all profit from here.

Even more surprising was The Darkness, which earned 2.3 million dollars in seventh place. On paper that does not seem all that great, but a 52% drop off for a horror film is actually quite impressive. Considering its mere 3 million dollar budget, a tally around 8.2 million dollars so far is solid. This film continues to prove that traditional marketing is not needed to make a successful film.

Here is the rest of the Top 10:

5. Jungle Book – 11 million
8. Zootopia – 1.7 million
9. The Huntsman: Winter’s War – 1.1 million
10. Mother’s Day – 1.1 million